An 80-year-old North Vancouver resident gave $6,000 to a woman claiming to be his niece. However, the woman wasn’t in fact related to him; the senior was the latest victim of one of the country’s major phone scams.
The man received a call approximately two weeks ago from a woman who said she was his niece, according to CTV. She told him she had been in a car accident after attending a friend’s wedding in Montreal. The woman claimed she was arrested for impaired driving and that the charges could be dropped if he sent her more than $2,000.
After the transaction was completed, the woman asked for an additional $2,000. The next day, she asked for her uncle to pay for her flight home, reports North Shore News.
The publication claims the suspect used the name of the man’s real niece and knew a few details about her (including the fact that she lived with her father).
According to North Shore Outlook, a number of cases regarding phone scams (specifically targeting seniors) have been reported on the North Shore in 2011.
"With Facebook and social media these days, we always caution people to be wary of putting their personal information out there because if you put your travel plans out there on Facebook or whatever — this gentleman could have had a niece who was travelling in Quebec and how would he know exactly what situation she'd got herself into?" North Vancouver RCMP spokesman Cpl. Richard De Jong told the local newspaper.